EiJ Hazard: PFAS
FOR ECOGOVLAB/CCEJP CURRICULUM: Use this as a research resource during 11th and 12th Grade Lesson 2 on Hazards.
FOR ECOGOVLAB/CCEJP CURRICULUM: Use this as a research resource during 11th and 12th Grade Lesson 2 on Hazards.
I hope to be involved in projects that aim to gather scientific evidence to inform environmental decision making and advocate for greater equity and justice in environmental governance. Through this work, I hope to learn the skills needed to engage in community based research and leverage community knowledge as expert knowledge. In my department, things are often siloed and issues are only seen through one perspective. I really want to gain more experience in collaborating with a wide array of stakeholders to come up with approaches to mitigate the environmental injustices experienced in under-resourced communities.
The bibliography indicates that a large ammount of the information for this article was drawn directly from field work, including interviews with workers at the chernobyl site during the inial response efforts and in the recovery efforts undertaken in the aftermath, as well as effected citizens, officials, and healthcare practitioners involved in the new welfare/healthcare system formed in the aftermath for those who were exposed.
By establishing for effective communication of information regarding a nuclear accident to other states which could be effected by it, and creating policies for the transfer of information, the convention addresses public health by giving goverments access to the information needed to respond to a nuclear disaster from abroad.
This article finds that based on the culture an individual belongs to, with its special beliefs, stigmas, and customs, how a patient may describe the "narrative" of an illness can vary greatly. A connection is shown to exist between the physical impact of an illness on the individual, how the illness is percieved by their culture, and the way they will describe the illness and seek treatment for it.
This organization does not claim to have new or novel way of responding to disasters, however their uniqueness lies in the sheer number of disasters of all sizes they respond to. This is best characterized by the information found on their page titled "Disaster Relief," which states the following:
"We respond to an emergency every 8 minutes
No one else does this: not the government, not other charities. From small house fires to multi-state natural disasters, the American Red Cross goes wherever we’re needed, so people can have clean water, safe shelter and hot meals when they need them most."Three ways the arguements of this article are supported are:
More scientific data and perspectives from public health officials could be used to broaden the perspective of this film and change its purpose from being an emotional film to being a more educational film.
A GoogleDoc link to a bibliogrpahy about PFAS in Santa Ana and community-led responses